ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Tiffany Moore Russell and Chris Messina are going toe-to-toe to see who will replace Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.<\/p>\n
Neither secured 50% of the vote during the primary election, so the mayoral race will be decided in today’s runoff.<\/p>\n
Russell said her time in office makes her well-qualified.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people know that they have someone who\u2019s experienced, who understands the importance of the job and the magnitude of what\u2019s being asked to take over,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Messina said he will boost Central Florida\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve really focused a lot on economic development, which is something that we desperately need here in Orange County,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Messina is an entrepreneur, the founder of a medical tech company, trade associations and a foundation to serve families who have children with disabilities. He said that thinking like a chief executive officer helps to solve problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe county is a big business, and so we need to apply business skills in terms of financial management, in terms of vision casting, in terms of direction,\u201d Messina said.<\/p>\n
Russell is a former Orange County commissioner and former Orange County Clerk of Courts.<\/p>\n
She said voters are familiar with her and her track record.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can get someone who is trusted, where I\u2019ve been elected as a district commissioner and countywide, but also someone who is measured,\u201d Russell said. \u201cYou know, measured leadership shows it\u2019s important to have a plan and is strategic about moving that forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Polls close at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Tiffany Moore Russell and Chris Messina are going toe-to-toe to see who will replace Orange…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4318,3140,115,139,141,140,99,275],"class_list":["post-446089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-spectrum-news-staff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}